Ram Nath Kovind: All you need to know about the new President of India

Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday took oath as the 14th President of India at Central Hall of Parliament. Chief Justice of India Justice JS Khehar administered the oath to Kovind.

Described variously as low profile, unassuming and affable, the former Bihar governor and old BJP hand registered an easy win to the country’s highest constitutional post by securing more than 65% of the votes in the electoral college.

The 71-year-old became the first BJP member and only the second Dalit to be elected to Rashtrapati Bhavan. BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) from Raj Bhavan in Patna picked Kovind for the job.

Here is all you need to know about Kovind, the new President of India:

1. It was perhaps Kovind’s non-confrontational approach to politics that led the JD(U) chief to back him for the president’s office even though he had been critical of his appointment as the governor, but later it led to the curious situation of the party endorsing the opposition’s candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the vice president’s post.

2. This easy demeanour has stood the Kanpur-born former lawyer in good stead, say political watchers. He is not just a Dalit leader, but is known for his organisational skills and is a loyal member of the BJP, attributes that not many in the larger NDA family can boast of.

3. Kovind is married and has a son and a daughter. It was a measure of his public persona that though his wife Savita was by his side during the weeks of campaigning, his children were not seen much or written about.

4. BJP chief Amit Shah said the party’s parliamentary board went through a long list of potential candidates before choosing Kovind, who was its MP in Rajya Sabha for two terms and headed its Dalit Morcha.

5. Kovind’s links to the party’s controversial Hindutva politics are tenuous. Sources say he was drawn more to the politics of social empowerment of Dalits and other weaker sections than the plank of religion.

6. Kovind, a commerce graduate who also studied law at Kanpur University, practised in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. He was also the central government’s standing counsel in the apex court from 1980-93.

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7. His official profile on the Bihar governor’s website describes him as a crusader for “rights and cause of weaker sections of society specially Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/OBC/ minority...” from his student days.

8. Kovind, who headed Dalit Morcha from 1998 to 2002, also led the All-India Koli Samaj.

9. Elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 1994 from Uttar Pradesh, he served two consecutive terms till March 2006.

10. He joined a stir by SC/ST employees in 1997 when Dalits and others protested against orders issued by the Central government, which were rescinded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee when the NDA came to power.

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11. As an advocate, Kovind took the lead in providing free legal aid to weaker sections, especially the SC/ST women, and poor and needy girls under the aegis of the Free Legal Aid Society in Delhi.

12. Known for his work in the field of education, he served as a member on the board of management of the Dr BR Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and was a member of the board of governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

(With inputs from PTI)